DEN Sets New Passenger Traffic Records in 2024

More than 82.3 million passengers used DEN, 5.8% higher than 2023

DENVER - January 22, 2025 - Today Denver International Airport (DEN) announced record passenger and cargo traffic data for 2024. Specifically, DEN served 82,358,744 passengers during the year, a 5.8% increase over the 77,837,917 passengers served in 2023, the previous record. 2024 is the first year in history DEN served more than 80 million annual passengers.

"I want to thank our airline and other partners, as well as our passengers for their business and their trust, and for another year of remarkable, record-setting growth," said DEN CEO Phil Washington. "And I want to thank DEN's employees for their tremendous work executing our Vision 100 strategic plan which is helping us accommodate 82.3 million passengers in an airport built for 50 million and is preparing us for an evitable 100 million annual passengers. As we see this kind of year-over-year growth, it's essential that we continue to maintain and grow our infrastructure, ensure operational efficiency and safety, and provide a quality customer experience for our passengers."

In addition to 2024 ranking as DEN's busiest year ever, the airport's passenger traffic recorded several notable milestones during the year:

• 11 out of 12 months set all-time passenger traffic records.
• All 12 months set new records for international passenger traffic.
• DEN's three busiest months ever are now July 2024, June 2024 and August 2024, respectively.
• Sunday, July 7, ranks as the busiest day ever through DEN's TSA checkpoints, and was the first day ever for DEN to process more than 90,000 passengers through the checkpoints.
• Saturday, March 30, ranks as the busiest day ever through DEN's Federal Inspection Service (FIS) facility with more than 7,400 arriving international passengers.

International passenger traffic growth outpaced overall passenger traffic growth during the year, surging by 15.0% as compared to 2023. Total international passenger traffic exceeded 4.6 million in 2024, a 46.2% increase over pre-pandemic 2019. Domestic passenger traffic totaled 77.7 million, an increase of 5.3% as compared to 2023 and 18.0% versus 2019. Total passenger traffic in 2024 was 19.3% above pre-pandemic 2019, equating to an increase of more than 13.3 million passengers.

DEN's two largest carriers, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, both set all-time passenger records in 2024. United served nearly 39 million passengers during the year and captured 47.3% of total DEN market share. Southwest captured 31.0% of total DEN market share on annual volume exceeding 25 million passengers. DEN's third-largest carrier, Frontier, served more than 8 million passengers, accounting for 10.1% of total market share.

Origination and destination (O&D) passengers, those beginning or ending their trip in Denver, totaled 45.6 million, a healthy 2.5% increase as compared to 2023. Connecting passenger volume totaled 36.7 million, an increase of 10.2% over 2023. O&D passengers accounted for 55.4% of total DEN passengers, and connecting passengers accounted for 44.6% of the total.

Total cargo volume at DEN in 2024 surpassed 732 million tons, a 7.4% increase as compared to 2023. In 2024, volume on all-cargo carriers increased by 8.9% while volume on passenger carriers increased by 3.2%.

Worldwide passenger traffic statistics from Airports Council International (ACI) are available through October 2024. Through the first 10 months of the year, DEN ranked as the third-busiest airport in the U.S. and the sixth-busiest airport in the world. Preliminary full-year data from ACI will be published this spring.

Denver International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world. DEN is the primary economic engine for the state of Colorado, generating more than $36 billion for the region annually. For more information visit www.FlyDenver.com, check us out on YouTube and Instagram, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Sign up for DEN's monthly newsletter Nonstop News.